Cloud Computing Becomes a Commodity

The trouble with trying to actually estimate the cost of cloud computing is that cloud computing services are by definition dynamic. That means that pricing for those services changes rapidly. In fact, as this model of computing evolves, it is more than likely we'll see the emergence of a spot market for compute engine resources in the cloud.

uptime software is taking the industry as a whole one step closer to the eventual reality with the release this week of uptimeCloud, a real-time cost monitoring and capacity planning management tool.

Unlike a financial modeling tool, uptimeCloud is not based on assumptions about pricing and capacity. Because uptimeCloud runs in real time, it provides IT organizations with the latest pricing from cloud computing service providers alongside a report of how much capacity a customer is going to require based on the performance goals associated with any given application workload. In addition, because uptimeCloud is delivered via a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering, IT organizations also don't have to incur the costs of setting up the overall system.

uptime software CTO Alex Bewley says uptimeCloud represents the formation of what he calls "cloud economic intelligence" that will ultimately change the way IT organizations think about acquiring IT resources in a world where there is already far more compute capacity in the cloud than there is actual application workload demand for it.

None of this means the end of on-premise computing. But it does mean that the emphasis on the future is going to be on rightsizing application workloads to run on premise, while relying on public cloud computing services to handle unexpected spikes in capacity demand.

I really liked your article. It is pretty amazing that the cloud providers have not yet provided this kind of realtime cost monitoring that uptimeCloud just released. As a cloud user....I have been wrestling with spreadsheets, comparing invoices and all kinds of nonsense to keep my CFO at bay and justify what I am spending in the Cloud. Thank you for bringing this solution to light...and hopefully cloud players like Amazon integrate solutions like this to make the life of us cloud users a lot easier. Thanks again and congrats to the folks at uptimeCloud.